Category Archives: asparagus

For those moms who can’t get their kids to eat healthy food this is a great dip made with fresh Asparagus, parmesan cheese and almonds. Serve over a colorful pasta or with vegetable sticks. Asparagus has a lot of nutritional values, the potassium in it can lower your blood pressure and It’s also rich in soluble fiber to help lower blood cholesterol levels.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus, cut into pieces and cooked

2 cloves of garlic

¼ cup almonds toasted

1 cup parmesan cheese

1 pinch of garlic roasted sea salt

½ cup sour cream

½ cup cream cheese

Directions:

Cook asparagus in boiling water until crisp-tender about 3 minutes. Remove asparagus from water and dry.

Wash the parsley and place in the bowl of food processor, add about 6 nuts, basil leaves, 2 tablespoons of pecorino fogli di noce cheese grated, salt, pepper and olive oil to taste, mix all together and place in the refrigerator.

Asparagus Sauce:

Wash and cut the ends from the bottoms off the asparagus, boil them in the “spaghettiera” (you can cut tips off asparagus and blanch while cooking stems for the 10 minutes if you do not have a spaghettiera) with the tips out of the water for about 10 minutes, cool them down by dipping them in ice water and then cut into 3 parts, setting the tips to the side.

Cook your pasta to al dente. While this is cooking, in a large pan brown a crushed clove of garlic and add the asparagus pieces and cook on medium heat until warm, finally add the more delicate tips, deglaze with white wine and add the chopped walnuts, salt and pepper to taste.

Serrano ham is one of Spain’s favorite meats. When you walk into any tapas bar, restaurant or little shop you will see the hams hanging from the wall or a wall decorated with the ropes from the ham. I have included the recipe for one tapa and pictures from many others. It has also become a favorite at my Farmers Market stands.

I hope you have fun making and eating these!

Chef Lippe

Ham and Chicken Stuffed Endives

Left over chicken

Serrano Ham

Alioli

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Slice the bottom inch away from the endive, remove the 6 largest leaves and arrange on plate.

Spoon 1 teaspoon of alioli along the bottom of each leaf.

Arrange shredded chicken on alioli and top with Serrano ham

Drizzle with good olive oil and server with tomatoes and fresh bread.

Enjoy the rest of my many uses of Serrano Ham or better yet come and visit our market stand and try a taste!

Our first week of farmers markets has been a smashing big hit! Our move to Florida took a lot longer than planned…. moving an entire warehouse plus two dogs and your own house was not easy. We only lost a few wine glasses however, so I call it a successful move. Still unpacking boxes and still trying to find where the new home is for a lot of things that I know I unpacked but do not remember where I put it on the warehouse shelf.

We are still working on our schedule for the farmers markets but have the following schedule so far:

Monday evening: Audubon Park Community Market

Tuesday is cooking day so we are off

Wednesday: Cocoa Village Farmers Market

Thursday: Cape Canaveral Farmers Market

Friday: Farmers Market in Satellite Beach

Saturday: Farmer’s Market Oceanside Vero Beach

Sunday: Stuart Green Market

So if you are in the area please stop buy say HI and check out some of our fresh made items that are not available on our website. Our stand is called Fratello Sole which means bother sun which seems to be a destiny that we had not even seen a few years ago. When we first started our online store we were living in Washington DC. We named our company Sunshine Corporation (first step of our destiny). Then my parents retired and moved to Florida (step two) and to keep the family together we moved to Florida also. So what better name for a Farmers Market stand than Fratello Sole! This week I made a garden fresh asparagus salad with some of our Fregola sarda pasta, tomatoes and asparagus that I got from my neighbor stand and 30 minutes in the kitchen start to finish. This was such a big hit we sold out of both the fresh salad and the pasta. Hope you enjoy it as well.

Cook the fregola for 10-12 minutes in boiling water until al dente. For the last two minutes add the asparagus, they will cook in this time. Drain water to arrest the cooking process, put to the side.
Remove the tomato core and seeds and dice. Mix with the shallots, fregola, asparagus and parsley and dress. Season to taste.

Add the cheese, I pulled small chunks off with my fingers and dropped them onto the salad.
Enjoy!

Now that the kids are on summer vacation we spend a lot of time at the beach and need some good picnic food. This salad is fun and easy to make and you can make it with any vegetables and server it warm or cold. It travels well without spoiling because it has olive oil instead of heavy mayonnaise. The kids love it because I let them pick out the color of the orzo (red, white, green) and the vegetables that we use. One time we had spinach orzo with yellow corn and red tomatoes. Today we are having white orzo with green peas, artichoke and white beans with lemon flavored olive oil. You can add chicken or shrimp to either dish if you have some way to keep it cold until you serve it at the beach.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Season the water with some salt, then cook the orzo pasta according to package directions (about 9 minutes). Drain well and set aside in a large mixing bowl. Add the peas, artichokes, white beans, and arugula on top of the orzo and season the salad with salt and pepper to taste. Add the lemon olive oil. Toss with a spoon until all the ingredients are well combined. It’s ready to serve, but tastes best if made a few hours or even the night before so flavors can really develop. Add some crumbled feta cheese or shaved parmesan if you like just before you serve it.

Here is another version that is good on its own or as a bed for a nice piece of grilled salmon.

Here is a light lunch that is healthy and tastes good. Here are some interesting facts about asparagus:

The Indian name for asparagus is Shatavari (she who possesses a hundred husbands)

Is high in fiber (easier to eat than a fiber supplement)

Helps to detoxify the liver

Is high in glutathione (powerful antioxidant)

Excellent source of B vitamins, which help manage blood sugar

Excellent source of vitamin K, important for bone health

Do you like yours thick or thin?

I like mine thicker and my mother likes hers thin. I personally think the thicker ones are sweeter and find the thin ones stringier. Usually the thicker stalks come from the male plant and the thin ones from a female plant (multi-tasking by producing seeds gives the plant less time to grow thicker stalks). The same as with humans, big strong males and smaller females.